The US government is planning to new bailout, and this one involves $40 million dollars worth of chickens.

The chicken industry, including farmers and meat processors, has had a rough year like the rest of us. Costs are up, especially because of higher grain prices, and people are buying less meat. Production rose 4 percent and demand fell. Now, there’s more chicken on the market than we need.

So, the Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it will buy $40 million dollars worth of chicken products, according to CNN. The money for the bailout will come from customs receipts.

This will benefit not only the chicken industry, but people in need as well, since the government will give the chicken to soup kitchens and the national Feeding America programs.

Certainly, helping out farmers and others in the food industry and providing food for the hungry seems more palatable than bailing out banks and auto makers. It’s easy to see that those who need help most will also profit from the donated food, and the USDA says that small breeders and farmers will profit as well as the large commercial operations.

But the idea of $40,000,000 worth of chicken does bring to mind the old Depression-era political slogan, “A chicken in every pot.”

I am the author ofHaunted Marietta, published by History Press as part of the Haunted Marietta series, Ghost to Coast, a paranormal handbook available at all major online bookstores,and Ghost to Coast Tours and Haunted Places, the second volume in the se